Marek Edelman - The Ghetto Fights

At 56 Leszno Street Jurek is cornered at an outpost. A group of SS-men surrounds him and one throws a grenade. Jurek adroitly catches the grenade in mid-air and tosses it back at the SS-men before it has time to explode. Four of them are killed on the spot.

Sziomo, the Deputy Area Commander, his arm wounded, covers the withdrawal from 72 Nowolipie Street. Suddenly the group is surrounded. Everything seems lost. There is no time to prevent disaster. Sziomo quickly pulls a sheet from a bed and with it he lowers everyone present down to the courtyard. There is nobody to hold it for him, however, and he jumps from the second storey.

In this area, as in the others, the Germans finally "saved" their military honour by setting house after house on fire.

In view of the changed conditions the ZOB now resolved to change its tactics, viz., to attempt the protection of larger groups of the population hidden in bunkers and shelters. Thus two ZOB detachments (Hochberg's and Sznajdmil's) escorted a few hundred people from the ruined shelter at 37 Mila Street to 7 Mila Street in broad daylight. The partisans were able to hold this latter hide-out, where several thousand people found shelter, for over a week.

The burning of the ghetto came to an end. There simply were not any more living quarters and, still worse, there was no water. The partisans themselves now descended to the underground shelters occupied by the civilian population to defend whatever could still be defended.

Battles and armed encounters were now fought mostly at night, while in the daytime the ghetto was completely lifeless. The Germans and the ZOB patrols met only when the streets were completely dark, and whoever had time to fire first, won. Our patrols were spread over the entire ghetto area. A great many died on both sides every night. The Germans and Ukrainians made it a practice to patrol the streets in larger groups, and lay in ambush for the partisans only.

On May Day the Command decided to carry out a "holiday" action. Several battle groups were sent out to "hunt down" the greatest number of Germans possible. In the evening a May Day roll-call was held. The partisans were briefly addressed by a few people and the Internationale was sung. The entire world, we knew, was celebrating May Day on that day and everywhere forceful, meaningful words were being spoken. But never yet had the Internationale been sung in conditions so different, so tragic, in a place where an entire nation had been and was still perishing. The words and the song echoed from the charred ruins and were, at that particular time, an indication that socialist youth was still fighting in the ghetto, and that even in the face of death they were not abandoning their ideals.

The partisans' situation was becoming more grave every hour. Not only were there shortages of food and water, but ammunition was also becoming scarce. We no longer had any communications with the "Aryan side" and we were, therefore, unable to arrange for the transportation of additional weapons that we had received (on the "Aryan side") from the People's Army while the fighting in the ghetto was going on (20 rifles and ammunition).

The Germans now tried to locate all inhabited shelters by means of sensitive sound-detecting devices and police dogs. On May 3rd they discovered the shelter on 30 Franciszkanska Street, where the operation base of those of our groups who had formerly forced their way from the brush-makers' area was at the time located. Here one of the most brilliant battles was fought. The fighting lasted for two days and half of all our men were killed in its course. A hand grenade killed Berek Sznajdmil. But even in the most difficult moments, when there was almost nothing left, Abrasha Blum kept our spirits up. His presence among us meant more to us and gave us more strength than the possession of the best possible weapon. One can hardly speak of victories when Life itself is the reason for the fight and so many people are lost, but one thing can surely be stated about this particular battle: we did not let the Germans carry out their plans. They did not evacuate a single living person.

On May 8th detachments of Germans and Ukrainians surrounded the Headquarters of the ZOB Command. The fighting lasted two hours, and when the Germans convinced themselves that they would be unable to take the bunker by storm, they tossed in a gas-bomb. Whoever survived the German bullets, whoever was not gassed, committed suicide, for it was quite clear that from here there was no way out, and nobody even considered being taken alive by the Germans. Jurek Wilner called upon all partisans to commit suicide together. Lutek Rotblat shot his mother, his sister, then himself. Ruth fired at herself seven times.

Thus 80% of the remaining partisans perished, among them the ZOB Commander, Mordechaj Anielewicz.

At night the remnants, who had miraculously escaped death, joined the remaining few of the brush-makers' detachments now deployed at 22 Franciszkanska Street.

That very same night two of our liaison men (S. Ratajzer--"Kazik" and Franek) arrived from the "Aryan side".

Ten days previously the ZOB Command had dispatched Kazik and Zygmunt Frydrych to our representative on the "Aryan side", Icchak Cukierman ("Antek"), to arrange the withdrawal of the fighting groups through the sewer mains. Now these liaison men arrived.

Unfortunately, it was too late. For one thing, the ZOB was already almost non-existent, but even the remnants that had remained could not all be taken out of the ghetto together.

All night we walked through the sewers, crawling through numerous entanglements built by the Germans for just such an emergency. The entrance traps were buried under heaps of rubble, the thoroughways booby-trapped with hand grenades, exploding at a touch. Every once in a while the Germans would let gas into the mains. In similar conditions, in a sewer 28 inches high, where it was impossible to stand up straight and where the water reached our lips, we waited 48 hours for the time to get out. Every minute someone else lost consciousness. Thirst was the worst handicap. Some even drank the thick, slimy sewer water. Every second seemed like months.

On May 10th, at 10 a.m. two trucks halted at the trap door on the Prosta Street-Twarda Street intersection. In broad daylight, with almost no cover whatsoever (the promised Home Army cover failed and only three of our liaison men and Comrade Krzaczek--a People's Army representative specially detailed for this assignment--patrolled the street), the trap door opened and one after another, with the stunned crowd looking on, armed Jews appeared from the depths of the dark hole (at this time the sight of any Jew was already a sensational occurrence). Not all were able to get out. Violently, heavily the trap door snapped shut, the trucks took off at full speed.

Two battle groups remained in the ghetto. We were in contact with them until the middle of June. From then on every trace of them disappeared.

Those who had gone over to the "Aryan side" continued the partisan fight in the woods. The majority perished eventually. The small group that was still alive at the time took an active part in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising as the "ZOB Group". At present the following of our comrades are still among the living: Chajka Betchatowska, B. Szpigel, Chana Krysztal, Masza Glejtman, and Marek Edelman.

In the period preceding the last German extermination drive the Bund's activities were closely intertwined with the history of the ZOB. I think that never before had there existed a similar degree of unanimity and coordination of people of different political parties as during the various groups' collaboration in that period. We were all fighters for the same just cause, equal in the face of history and death. Every drop of blood was of precisely the same value.